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Show REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS. 401 merely a few instances taken at random fromdifferent sections to show that Indians all over the country are beginning to help themselves and are becoming industrious, self-supporting citizens. This is a gratify-ing tribute to the efforts of those who are trying to lift them to self-maintenance. The returned students, as a whole, ar! giving good accounts of themselves. There are, of course, exceptions re orted, but most of these cases are due to the tenaciousness with w%ich the old i4' eople of the tribe adhere to their own customs and habits and the e ect of the example thus set. The iutluences for good, however, predomi-nate,. and as tribal relations are broken up the down-pulling tendency of tribal life and traditions will lose jts force. The recommendation made in previous reports that an employment clerk should be stationed at some of the large agencies .to assist and encourage returned students in obtainin employment 1s once more respectfully brought to your attention. $r om various causes the cul-tivating of their allotments is not always racticable, and mani I of them, while willing to work, do not know wgere to look or to w om to apply. The employment clerk could be informed in advance by school superintendents of the return of students to their homes and thus be able to place himself in communication with them. He could learn their home conditions and their qualifications for particular lines of work. He could also kee in touch with those most likely to need Indian labor, trained or otierwise, and, in short, make himself a medium of exchange between employers and those seeking employ-ment. It is believed great good could be accomplished by energetic. and capable men in such,positions, and many young Indians be given the opportunity of earnmg their own living and applying practically the instruction received at the schools. TRANSFER OF PUPILS. . The parrt year shows marked improvement in the method of trans- * fer of pupils from one school to another. Owing to tbe peculiar con-ditions attending Indian school work. including the varB ing ages of pnpils at the aanle stages of educational development, an the difficul-ties encountered in some cases in securmg the consent of parents to sending their children to a dishnce for a term of years, me problem of systematically promoting or transferring Indian pup~lsi s not an easy one. It is the aim of the Office to make the school system as a whole har-monious and interdependent. The Course of Study, issued some four years ago, was specially intended as a guide in this work. the past year the Hampton Normal aud A ricultural School, whic should he looked upon as the Harvard or gale of the md man, ha8 caused to be prepared and sent to the field a series of examinatLon questions to test the fitness of applicants for entrance to this most excellent institution. Therefore while they had an appropriation for 120 pupils they have only been able to obtain 96 this session who cared to or were fitted to take advantape of the owuortunitiem offered them. ~ ~ - . . By corresyondenrr and {e~.iot~sl,instrucriwoe~ lh ave u r g d agents and -iu~)rl.intendentato have the' ch~ldrcne nter the (Iav srhuols inm~e-diateliupon reaching school age and to allow them tdremain there at 10170--05-26 |